CBCG Council Meeting
31/07/2024
At its meeting held today and chaired by the Governor, Ms. Irena Radović, the CBCG Council discussed and adopted the Central Bank of Montenegro`s Macroeconomic Report for 2023. The Report indicates that, according to preliminary estimates by MONSTAT, Montenegro`s economy recorded a growth of 6% in the reporting year, which was mainly owing to an increase in private consumption. Growth was also recorded in industrial production, forestry, trade and most types of transport, while a decline in economic activity was registered in the construction sector. The Report further highlights that inflation significantly declined and that, after double-digit growth rates, it amounted to 4.3% in December 2023, while the average annual inflation for 2023 stood at 8.6%.
The growth trend of the Montenegrin economy continued in the first quarter of 2024 when, according to preliminary MONSTAT data, real GDP growth of 4.4% year-over-year was recorded, as stated in the Central Bank of Montenegro`s Macroeconomic Report for the first quarter of 2024, which was also on the agenda of today's CBCG Council meeting.
The Inflation Report for the first quarter of 2024, which was also adopted by the Council, indicates that consumer prices rose on average 4.7% year-over-year. According to MONSTAT data, in March 2024, as compared to December 2023, consumer prices recorded an average growth of 1.5%, which was mostly due to price increase in the categories of food and non-alcoholic beverages, transportation, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, and communications.
In accordance with the obligation prescribed by the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, the Council adopted a Decision on the Central Registry of Transaction Accounts and Deposits and Safe Deposit Boxes, which regulates the content of the registry of transaction accounts, deposits and safe deposit boxes, as well as the data to be submitted for the purposes of this registry.
Working on continuous improvement of the regulatory framework and its alignment with the relevant EU legislation, the Council adopted the Decision Amending the Decision on Ensuring Strong Customer Authentication and Common and Secure Open Standards for Communication. In this way, it is ensured that the standards of reliable authentication of clients that will be applied by payment service providers in Montenegro are at the same level as in the EU.
In order to harmonize with the recently amended Central Bank of Montenegro Law and to regulate this issue more precisely, the Council adopted the Decision on Authenticity and Fitness Checking of Euro Banknotes and Coins.
The Council adopted a Decision on Statistical Data and Information that Investment Funds, Investment Fund Management Companies and Insurance Companies Submit to the Central Bank of Montenegro, with the aim of innovating the compilation of monetary and financial statistics, in order to provide complete data on financial account statistics as an integral part of the national accounts, which fulfils one of the two final criteria of under the negotiation chapter 18 – Statistics.
Other relevant reports and internal acts that were discussed and adopted at today`s Council meeting are the Reports on operations and policy implementation of the Central Bank for May and June 2024, the Quarterly report on the operations of financial service providers in Montenegro (March 2024), Decision amending the Decision on Reserve Requirements of Credit Institutions at the Central Bank of Montenegro, Guidelines for establishing the framework for the selection of an independent external auditor for the audit of financial statements of Central Bank of Montenegro, as well as other acts within its competence.